Today, I am reading and commenting on Numbers 19-21.

I have always found the account of the bronze serpent which Moses made confusing, especially considering that Hezekiah later destroyed it because the Israelites were worshiping it.  However, Jesus suggests that it foreshadows His crucifixion.  Which means we need to look at what this account tells us about our relationship with God.  So, let’s look at the context of this event.  Aaron had died shortly before this and the Israelites were being forced to go around Edom.  By going around Edom it seemed like the goal of the Promised Land was even further away.  They began to feel like they would never get there and they lost their patience with Moses and with God.  They became focused on their hardships rather than with what God had done for them so far.  They stopped thinking about the ways in which God had cared for them and focused on their lack of good things.  In a way, they had forgotten how bad things had been in Egypt and were thinking they would have been better off if they had remained in Egypt.  In fact, they seemed to feel like things could not be worse.  Then things got worse.  The people immediately realized their mistake, repented, and asked Moses to pray for them.  Moses prayed and God told him to make the bronze serpent and put it on a pole.  When people looked  up at it, they were healed from snakebites.  The bronze serpent caused people to look up and think about God rather than continuing to look down and think about their problems.  Let us look up and think abut God, rather than about our problems.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.